year mandate, Menem raised the number of Supreme Court justices to nine from five and appointed people close to his government. The chief justice was a law firm partner of the president's brother. Since Kirchner's election over a year ago, two judges stepped down under threat of impeachment and a third was dismissed by Congress after an impeachment hearing. The popular Kirchner has also replaced top-ranking military and police officials to end what he says are decades of ingrained cronyism and corruption. All three of Kirchner's nominees to fill the high court, including two women, have been confirmed by the Senate. They were subject to new public evaluation rules created by Kirchner to bring more transparency and debate to the process. Vazquez told local radio he "will fight to the very end" and called the impeachment an "ideological persecution."
